System and method for selectively enabling access based on lineage analysis of digital information

ABSTRACT

Software lineages arise through purchase and reproduction. Lineages are tracked by storing lineage-relevant information in variable regions of software instances and/or in a central database according to methods disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/764,293, filed Jan. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/631,411, filed Apr. 12, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No.6,266,654, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 07/990,455, filed Dec. 15, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,070.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

We disclose a system whereby software piracy can be deterred whilecopying and purchasing can be encouraged. User to user copying plays animportant positive role in the present system, and in the sharewareindustry, and as “piracy” it plays an important negative role in othershareware- and internet-based marketing schemes. The present inventiondiscloses methods whereby software copying and purchasing can betracked, studied, and rewarded, and methods whereby software lineagescan become adapted to their environments.

2. Introduction

In an increasingly wired world, software can be reproduced anddistributed worldwide, in minutes, and at little cost. For intellectualproperty vendors, these economies are problematic: freely copyablesoftware typically gives customers little incentive for payment, and itpositions piracy as the path of least resistance.

We disclose here a method for piracy prevention and purchaseencouragement without loss of copyablility. The system gives vendorsround-the-clock and round-the-globe vending and fulfillment services, aswell as secondary and tertiary sales from copied software. And thesystem gives users convenient access to digital products which mightotherwise be less readily available, lets them try before buying,provides incentives for purchasing, and rewards them with increasedbenefits minutes after they decide to buy.

As disclosed, the basic idea is to “lock” selected features of a digitalproduct such that the password required to access those features isunique to a particular product and context, and such that the passwordcan be instantly and conveniently purchased and acquired by telephone,email, modem, etc. Users can thus evaluate locked products in theirstill-locked “demo mode” and unlock them in minutes. Vendors canencourage customers to pass copies on to other potential customers,because when the context changes, SoftLocked products automaticallyrevert to demo mode.

Using this system, intellectual property owners can allow their productsto be freely redistributed without losing control over their conditionsof use, and without foregoing the ability to demand and receive faircompensation.

The Importance of Reproduction.

The dynamics, “flow,” and reproduction of software through theinformation marketplace is not well understood, in part because it isdifficult to study. Yet it is of significant economic and scientificimportance. User-to-user copying, software reproduction, “Pass-along”,etc., plays an important positive role in our system, and in othershareware- and internet-based marketing schemes. Unauthorized softwarereproduction (“piracy”) costs software producers billions of dollarsannually, and discourages the release of other digital properties. Moregenerally, social scientists have long recognized that the spread andevolution of reproducible patterns of information (variously known as“memes”, “culturgens”, etc.) is the very essence of culture and culturalevolution. The internet is a recent and arguably revolutionary new arenain which such processes occur with unprecedented speed; methods forinvestigating and exploiting this new information ecology are thereforesorely needed.

Software marketing, and the study of the information economy would alsobe greatly enhanced by a system which tracked the flow of copies fromperson to person and from computer to computer. The ability to track“chains of copying” would aid the investigation of suspected piracy, thestudy of data flow through unregulated and/or unmonitored digitalsystems, the auditing of service providers, the exploration of marketingand advertising strategies, and the implementation of multi-levelmarketing schemes which pay commissions to individuals whose copying anddistribution efforts result in increased sales, etc.

It is not difficult to imagine that a piece of software could track itsown “travels” from person to person and from computer to computer, foras used here “software” refers either to executable programs into whichself-tracking algorithms and technologies might be embedded, or datadocuments designed for processing by an executable programs, into whichself-tracking algorithms and technologies might be embedded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention discloses a number of suitable self-trackingalgorithms and technologies by which one might determine of a product's“chain of copying,” “lineage”, or “pedigree” within and betweenprocessing devices and information networks.

As implied by the terms “lineage” and “pedigree”, the reproduction anddistribution of software in information networks is similar to thereproduction and spread of organisms in nature. “Computer viruses” areso-called precisely because of this similarity. The present inventionexploits and extends this similarity. As will be disclosed below, itsolves the problem of tracking, allows digital products to more fullyexploit the “darwinian” potential of the information marketplace, andhas other applications. To lay the groundwork, some basic concepts ofbiological systems will now be reviewed.

At a certain level of abstraction, biological reproduction is digitalcopying: the genetic code is in fact a digital system, and gene pools,species, and ecosystems are in fact highly-evolved networks whichsupport the copying and spread of these codes. In biological parlance,the “genome” is the encoding of a single organism's complete geneticmakeup. Although genome sizes vary widely from one species to the next,genome size is virtually constant within a given species. In sexuallyreproducing species, each parent contributes a random half-genome whichis recombined to produce the offspring's complete genome. In asexuallyreproducing organisms, there is no systematic randomization, and asingle parent's entire genome is simply replicated in the offspring,albeit with copying errors known as mutations. In both sexual andasexual species, the size of the offspring's genome is therefore thesame size as the parents' genome. In both cases too, the content of theoffspring's genome (that is, the particular genetic patterns whichcharacterize the individual) is the same as the parents' content exceptfor the randomizing influences of recombination and and/or mutation.

The copying of artificial digital products is most like asexualreproduction insofar as each instance of a program or document(henceforth, “software-instance”) can be copied, and each copy canitself become the basis for a “chain of copying” analogous to abiological lineage. Random variation through copying error is usuallyguarded against in the world of software, but it can occur, and it cancertainly be designed into artificial system, as disclosed here.

In biology, random genetic variation plays a crucial role in evolutionby natural selection, because it produces functional variations inorganisms which are transmitted to offspring. These functionalvariations have influences on success and biological reproduction, whichtherefore produces differential reproduction of selected geneticvariations, which produces adaptive evolution of species, lineages, etc.Similar processes of variation and selection occur in other systems, andare an increasingly important area of research in theoretical andapplied computer science. The relevant disciplines are known as“Artificial Life”, “Evolutionary Programming”, “Genetic Algorithms”,“General Evolution Theory”, etc.

Through the study of the genetic sequences in individual genome,biologists have determined that random variation occurs each timereproduction occurs, and that these variations propagate and accumulatethough successive generations. By comparing the sequences in oneindividual with sequences found in other individuals, it is possible todeduce and reconstruct the historical sequence of copying errors whichderived those sequences from a common ancestor. The procedures involvedare amply documented and widely employed in the scientific literature,so we will only summarize some basic heuristics here.

The degree of similarity between two individuals can be used as an indexof the number of copying events which intervene between them. Forexample, since only one copying event intervenes between parent andoffspring, there will be relatively little variation between them,whereas the genomes of more distant relatives tend to be less similar,because many copying events intervene between them. With furtherassumptions about mutation rate one can estimate the precise number ofcopying events intervening between two individuals based upon use thedegree of genetic dissimilarity between them.

Moreover, because genes can be distinguished by their position within agenome, analysis of the specific patterns of information shared by twoindividuals provides further clues to the ancestry, or copying history,of those patterns. When an unusual (or less than universal) geneticsequence shows up in two individuals in the same genomic location, it isprobable that those individuals share a common ancestor, and that thatancestor bore the same trait. In this way, the genome of the commonancestor can be determined probabilistically.

Finally, by correlating this information with knowledge of confirmedindividuals, and through other means, it is possible to reconstruct witha high degree of probability the historical sequence of copying errorswhich intervened between individuals with similar, but non-identicalgenomes. The genetic history of a lineage can thus be reconstructed.

Those familiar with biology and biotechnology will know that throughmethods of the sort sketched above, and through other techniques withsimilar bases in biology and mathematics, it is possible to reconstructbiological pedigrees with a high degree of accuracy based on verylimited samples of populations. The techniques work even though genomesize remains constant, and even though the genomes do not contain asystematic record of their own pedigrees.

Although these biological techniques have been developed for theanalysis of relatively “messy” biological systems, they can be appliedto any system in which idiosyncratic patterns of information accumulatewithin a reproducing lineage.

We disclose several methods of achieving these ends, and disclosefurther methods which eliminate the need for retrieval of completesoftware-instances from the field. Another elaboration will couple therandom error mechanism with a mechanism of selection in order toincrease the fitness of products to their environment, the usefulness ofproducts to their customers, and the profitability of these products totheir creators. Finally, a last elaboration will allow vendors to usethe information gathered in order to modify the characteristics ofalready-released software.

OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

One object of the present invention is to provide methods for thetracking of a product's “chain of copying,” “lineage”, or “pedigree”.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a means ofrewarding people who redistribute and promote the sale of software

Another object of the present invention is to increase the similaritybetween software lineages and biological lineages in order to increasethe applicability of certain analytical techniques developed in biology.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a means by whichsoftware lineages can adapt automatically to the environments andmarkets within which they circulate.

Another object of the present invention is to make the evolution ofvaluable software less dependent upon human oversight and more sensitiveto requirements of local niches and markets.

Another object of the present invention is to extend the existingresearch disciplines of biology, artificial life, and evolutionarycomputing to the world of information commerce.

Other objects and applications of the present invention will becomeapparent from the description and discussion which follows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1. shows a diagram of a method for tracking software lineage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Appendation-Based Embodiments

FIG. 1. Shows a “mint copy” of a software-instance such as a computerprogram or document as initially produced by the software manufacturer.The digital product is subdivided into two portions. The “StablePortion” of the program contains the highly specific instructions ordata which cause the computing device to function as desired byprogrammer and customer. The “Variable Portion” of the program containsa pattern which can change without significantly affecting the product'sbasic functioning. In the mint copy, the bits in the Variable Portionmay be pre-set to a known pattern (e.g., all 1s).

Under certain circumstances of interest the pattern in the VariablePortion is made to change or “mutate” in the field. In one preferredembodiment, one such circumstance is the purchase and unlocking of aproduct's advanced features, and that will be an example used repeatedlyin this application. It should be understood, however that the moment ofproduct unlocking is only one example of a circumstance to whichmutation could be linked under the present invention. Othercircumstances which might be interesting for commercial or researchpurposes are instances of program-activation, instances of copying, andso on. These disclosures thus apply generally to the storage and/orretrieval of lineage-relevant information in Variable Portions ofexecutable programs or digital document, and the methods whereby thisinformation can be used for commerce, research, etc.

Under the present invention, the change in the Variable Portion shouldbe “idiosyncratic”, i.e., the change undergone by two identicalsoftware-instances should tend to be distinguishably different, suchthat the two instances, and their descendants through copying, aredistinguishable. It is also important that in the history of a lineage,these changes should accumulate rather than overwrite each other, so thehistorical sequence of changes can be reconstructed. These requirementscan be achieved in many ways, some of which will be disclosed below.

One method of tracking copies utilizing this kind of idiosyncraticinformation might be called the “Appended History Method”: each time aproduct is purchased, append to the Variable Portion information aboutthe current context, user, etc. To determine the chain of copyingthrough which a product had passed, retrieve copies of the product fromthe field, and read the “lineage” of each copy from the cumulative listappended to the product. There are problems with the Appended HistoryMethod: (1) potentially confidential customer information would beroutinely put in the hands of strangers, (2) the product would soon growimpracticably large as more and more information was appended to it, and(3) copies would need to be retrieved from the field for analysis.

The methods to be disclosed below reduce and, in conjunction with ourco-pending invention eliminate, these problem”.

Software is often comprised of one or more “files” consisting ofsequences of 1s and 0s encoded in an information-storage medium. Thesesequences are typically chosen by human designers to influence theoperation of a physical computing device in non-arbitrary ways toproduce desired effects. For example, a particular sequence of codes canturn a general purpose computer into calculator of square roots, whereasanother sequence of codes can make a CD player reproduce the sounds of asymphony. Thus, the sequences in typical digital products are highlynon-random, and the devices which copy those sequences are designed todo so with maximal fidelity. However, it is not at all difficult usingconventional computing technology, to store modifiable sequences of datain a software product, to cause them to be modified randomly ornon-randomly, and to arrange for those modifications to be preserved inderivative copies. FIG. 1 provides an example of one way in which thisconcept might be realized.

One preferred embodiment improves upon the Appended History Method:instead of appending a history to the product as described earlier,append just the idiosyncratic context fingerprint which is automaticallytransmitted at purchase-time to the Central Password Dispensing service.The possibility of duplicates is eliminated entirely in anotherembodiment in which the value to be appended is actually assigned by theCentral Password Vending system and transmitted back to thesoftware-instance through the password delivered and/or through anotherdatum transmitted at purchase time.

Still other appendation-based embodiments achieve the same general end:for example, a pseudo-random number can be appended to the VariablePortion of the product each time a “mutation” is desired, and this toowill provide a basis for lineage reconstruction. It should thus beunderstood that the invention can be embodied in many different ways,and that all of these embodiments, including many not mentioned here,fall within the scope of the present invention.

All of the appendation-based embodiments described are superior to theAppended History Method described earlier in that customer informationneed not be incorporated into the files being copied and redistributedpassed on, with the benefits that customer information will not beexposed to the scrutiny of strangers, and that the growth of theVariable Portion will grow much more slowly with each appendation.

Furthermore, if the contents of the Variable Portion are routinelytransmitted to the Central Password Dispensing system during purchasingevents, either in the fingerprint or as additional data are transmitted,then it will be possible to use the Central Database to translate themeaningless string of appended “mutations” into an information richsequence of customer-associated purchasing events, again withoutrequiring that the customer information be placed in the VariablePortion itself.

An example based upon one of the aforementioned embodiments willdemonstrate the principles involved in many of the embodiments justdescribed. Consider the case in which mutations are assigned andtransmitted at purchase-time from the Central System in such a way as toprevent repetition, and that those mutations can be expressed ortypecast as ordinal ASCII characters. A Variable Portion retrieved fromthe field might look like this: AECB, and might under one simple codingscheme be interpreted as follows: the purchase-event which gave rise tothis software-instance is the second purchase of a copy of thesoftware-instance known as AEC. AEC is the third descendant ofsoftware-instance AE, which was the fifth descendant of the mint copy,instance A. The Central Database would allow one to look up eachsoftware-instance and associate it with the customer informationacquired at the purchase-event which created that software-instance.Many other coding schemes and scenarios can be envisioned which would bevariations on such themes, and additional embodiments of the presentinvention. But in any case, by analyzing a number of software-instancesone could identify the software-instances which had been disseminated orpositioned most successfully, and track the customers and/orcircumstances responsible for that success.

Data Retrieval

Analysis of sampled genomes is a necessary part of the system justdescribed, and many sampling methods can be envisioned. However, theretrieval of software instances from the field could be both awkward andinefficient. Working with biological materials, field biologists,ecologists and social scientists typically go out into the field,capture and bioassay representative samples, apply statistical andsampling methodologies to the data obtained, and estimate populationcharacteristics, etc. It is often an arduous process. In the“information ecosystems” addressed by the present invention it willoften be much easier to retrieve, assay and analyzes samples, and theresults may nonetheless shed considerable light on the phenomena ofbiology and natural selection. Furthermore the ability to addresstargeted inquiries to Users of particular interest could facilitateresearch considerably.

Furthermore, as disclosed here, retrieval of the Variable Portion can bean integral and unobtrusive part of the automated purchasing process.Note that only the Variable Portion of the genome must be analyzed, andthis will typically be a small fraction of the entire product. Note alsothat the automated purchasing process often requires that the passworddispensing system deliver the customer's password only after receipt ofcertain information from the customer—e.g., credit card information,personal information, a Product Number, a number which encodes thecontext in which that product is to be unlocked, etc. Upon receipt ofthis information, the password vending system (in a typical embodiment)stores the information, debits the customer's credit card, and thengenerates and transmits the password back to the customer. Many kinds ofcommunication channels can be used to link the customer with thepassword vending system for this transaction (e.g., touch tonetelephone, electronic mail, world wide web browser), and many of themcould simultaneously transmit the Variable Portion of thesoftware-instance being purchased at the same with little added delay.In this way, the vending system could collect all of the informationneeded for the lineage analysis and associate it with customerinformation which would facilitate commission-payments, correlativeanalysis of the lineage data, etc. The data for subsequent analysiswould thus accumulate conveniently in a central database.

In short, this system would allow sophisticated “ecological” and“genetic” analysis of the reproduction and sale of a digital product inits market/niche, and could do so without storing a large orever-increasing amount of space to in the products itself. The systemwould provide valuable information to the vendors of the products, andcould be a useful research tool in its own right for scientific studiesof “network ecosystems” and for a broader science of informationecology.

Here is an example of one way in which the system might be used. Itmight well be advantageous to offer purchasers a commission on salesderived from their own purchased copy of a given product. This wouldencourage users to purchase the product, pass it to other potentialpurchasers, post it, publicize it, and recommend it on bulletin boardsystems where it is likely to be discovered or downloaded, and so on. Itwould also provide a way of offering existing purchasers a discount whenthey buy second or third copies for use on additional computers. Thepresent system, without modification, already collates all of theinformation which would be needed to implement this scheme. WhenCustomer A purchases a copy, his name, address etc is collected alongwith the Variable Portion data which individuates his particularpurchased copy. If subsequent purchases involve new genomes which differfrom Customer A's genomes by only one bit, they will be recognizable asfirst-order derivatives of Customer A's copy; if a new genome isregistered which differs by two bits, it will be recognizable as asecond order derivative, and so on. Commissions could thus be paid tosuccessful redistributors on a regular basis, and under a variety ofterms and conditions which might be specified in the promotionallanguage embedded in the product itself. (Ambiguities, if theimplementation allows them to arise, would not be fatal, and might evenadd a lottery-like appeal to the enterprise, if accidental “namesakes”were allowed to share in each others profits. A system like this wouldnot only create a spontaneous cadre of ad hoc sales agents, it wouldenable help vendors discover new markets and marketing strategies byinterviewing successful agents.

Independent of our co-pending invention, we also disclose that inchronically networked environments such as the internet, there arealternative means by which it is possible for software-instances totransmit their Variable Portions and/or other information such asphysical location, conditions of use, etc. to the Central Database.Under internet networking protocols it is routine for a program runningon one computer to transmit information to a Central Host locatedvirtually anywhere in the world. It is also easy and routine for aprogram to report the computer, file system and filename (“footprint”),from which it is running, the functions it is executing, etc. Tomaximize the value of this information it is desirable that eachsoftware-instance be distinguishable from other software-instances.Under the present invention, all software-instances derived from aparticular “parent” have the same “genome” or identity. Furthermore itis will be disclosed in the next paragraph that the present inventionenables even “sibling” software-instances to be distinguishable fromeach other. Therefore it will be possible for each software-instance tohave a unique identity and to report that identity as well as itsfootprint at the moment of the report to the Central Database under avariety of circumstances, thus providing vast amounts of information tothe researcher.

The method by which “siblings” can be made distinguishable from eachother is to set aside an auxiliary data region in the Variable Portionwhich does not mutate under the circumstances heretofore described. Thevalues in this data range must be made relatively unique so that theydifferentiate siblings, and must be relatively stable so that thesoftware-instance can have a stable identity. One way to achieve thisfor executable programs is as follows. Whenever a new genotype arises(e.g., when a new mutation is appended to the primary Variable Portion)the Auxiliary Region is cleared, or set to a null value. Whenever aprogram starts up, it checks to see if it has a non-null value in itsAuxiliary Region, and if it does not, it gives itself a random,pseudorandom, or otherwise idiosyncratic value. The effect of thismethod will be for each software-instance to give itself anidiosyncratic “name” on the first occasion in which it runs. The namewill retained until the software-instance undergoes another mutation, atwhich point it, and any clones which are created from it will again givethemselves unique names.

Under this disclosure it will thus be possible in chronically networkedenvironments for every software-instance to send “signed” reports to theCentral Database reporting upon their physical location and/oractivities.

Those skilled in the arts will recognize that similar methods derivedfrom the co-pending disclosure can be used to achieve the same ends withnon-executable document files. In this case, it is an executable programwhich does the reporting and implements the dynamic activitiesdescribed, but it operates upon and reports about the status not of itsown Variable and Auxiliary Portions, but those of the document beingstudied. Thus, the scope of this invention goes well beyond the specificembodiments used as examples.

It should also be understood that the Variable Portion of a product neednot necessarily be physically distinct from other functioning componentsof the program. A record of mutation events might also be intermingledwith other data objects in the product. Steganographic techniques, forexample, could be used to store the data of the Variable Portion withinimages or other data structures. Thus, the present invention isconcerned with the general methodology of adding random values to arandom data in a product so as to render those products amenable tolineage-analyses and other phenomena and technologies usually associatedwith biology.

Non-Appendation-Based Embodiments

Under an additional disclosure in the next paragraph,non-appendation-based embodiments can alternatively be used to create,accrue and collate lineage information. These methods do not bear theburden of a Variable Portion which grows open-endedly. Rather, thesystem created is more like that of organisms with fixed-size genome.Under this scheme, as in biology, the inferences one came make are moreprobabilistic than deterministic. As in biology also, the dynamic ofrandom variation and natural selection in this scheme gives rise to avariety of scientifically interesting, and commercially useful,phenomena.

When mutations are desired, a random or idiosyncratically chosen bit inthe Variable Portion is set to its opposite state (0 to 1, or 1 to 0).As a result, copies of this particular program-copy are identifiable bythe particular pattern which results. If one of these copies is made tomutate on a further occasion, another randomly selected bit in theVariable Portion will be flipped, and the descendants of that “lineage”will be identifiable by the particular sequence of bits produced bythose two random events.

Phrases such as “random or idiosyncratic” should be clarified. As usedin biology and in many computer implementations of “random numbergenerators” the term does not necessarily refer to genuinelynon-deterministic events. Random number generators for example, oftengenerate pseudorandom numbers by way of deterministic algorithms inessentially error-free hardware. The important point is that “randommutations” in biology “random numbers” in computers and “random errors”in the present invention are idiosyncratic and unpredictable in thecontext of the data structures to which they are introduced (genome,number stream, or Variable Portion). In the context of the presentdisclosure, it is important only that when two identical programs are“mutated” the particular bit or bits chosen for flipping will usuallydiffer. Randomness, pseudo- or otherwise, is only one way of achievingthis end. Another way, using the technology of our co-pending inventionwould be to use a fingerprint of the user's computer as a modulus forselecting the bit to be flipped from the range of available bits.Another way, would be to have the Central Database decide which bit toflip, based upon a statistical analysis of all prior cases, so as tominimize ambiguities.

However achieved, random or idiosyncratic mutations in the VariablePortion of a product provide the program with a “genome” which willyield to the kinds of lineage analyses developed in biology, andsketched above. By sampling the genome of individual programs obtainedfrom the “field,” it will thus be possible to determine which instancesare copies of the originally-distributed mint copy, which instances arecopies of “first generation” registered offspring of the mint-copy, andso on. It will be possible to derive pedigrees. By correlating thosepedigrees with independent information about the distribution of thosepedigrees in space and time. It will be possible to draw inferencesabout the temporal-spatial niches which favor high rates of purchasing,copying, pedigree-branching, and so on. The methodologies involved werereviewed above, and are well-documented in the literature of biology,ecology, evolutionary systematics, etc.

These inferences are necessarily probabilistic and subject to error, butthey are extremely powerful nonetheless. To illustrate one source oferror, consider that a particular bit might be selected for flipping ontwo separate occasions in the history of a particular lineage, and thatthe two flips could cancel each other out. This weakness can beaddressed in a variety of ways. Since the “Variable Portion” of the mintcopy can be known, the software which does the bit-flipping could beprogrammed to avoid this case by selecting randomly amongas-yet-unflipped bits only. Even without this fix, however, theresolving power of this system is directly related to the size of theVariable Portion, and substantial resolving power could be achieved witha Variable Portion of only a few thousand bytes. Furthermore, bypartitioning the Variable Portion into distinct regions, even greaterresolving power can be achieved. For example if the space allocated tothe Variable Portion is increased from 1000 to 2000, the chance of such“collisions” is halved. But if the 2000 bit Variable Portion were alsopartitioned into two regions, with each region undergoing one randommutation per Event, then the chance of a reversal goes from 1 in onethousand to 1 in one million. Other methods of preventing or resolvingambiguities would be to have the Central Database assign or reassignnon-unique mutations based while communicating with thesoftware-instance.

Even if ambiguities exist in population of Variable Portions,sophisticated analytical algorithms could resolve such ambiguity byusing correlative information such as the time and place from which thecopy in question was acquired. Customers could also be queried when suchambiguities are discovered.

It should thus be understood that the system need not be completelyreliable in order to be of great utility, that the embodiments justdescribed are only a simple example, and that many variations andimprovements can be envisioned which would fall within the scope of thepresent invention.

Natural Selection, Artificial Selection, and Gene Therapy.

Natural selection is the most successful algorithm known for thegeneration of solutions to problems. Some philosophers of sciencecharacterize the algorithm in quite general terms—the differentialreproduction of randomly generated successful variations—and assert thatit is the only solution-generating algorithm there can be. Be that as itmay, we will now disclose a method by which the variations embedded inthe Variable Portion of a product can be the basis for anatural-selection-like process which can be directed toward solutions toproblems which include, but are not limited to, the maximizing of salesand the tendency to be copied.

Some of the data in the Variable Portion of a product can be made toencode parameters which affect the utility or attractiveness of thatproduct. This is a standard technique in the branch of computer scienceknown as genetic algorithms and evolutionary programming. In the presentcontext, the designer of the product would probably want to constrainthe executing program's use of those parameters carefully, so thatmutations could not have unacceptable or fatal effects. But even withinsuch constraints, there are many ways this might be done.

Consider the case of a computer program which, if it is operating indemo mode, runs for a certain number of minutes and then requires theuser to either make a purchase or restart the program. From the Vendor'spoint of view, the optimal number of minutes would give the user enoughtime to evaluate and appreciate the program, but not so much time as toreduce the probability of purchasing. It may be difficult for thesoftware designers to identify the optimal number of minutes, and infact the optimal value may well depend upon the market in which theproduct is being distributed. The present invention addresses many suchcases in which it would be desirable for digital products to adaptthemselves to local circumstances without direct intervention by thedesigner.

Because the parameter settings are encoded in the Variable Portion ofthe product, occasional mutations will cause those parameter settings tovary from one software-instance to another in the field. By definition,and by the logic of natural selection, software-instances with parametersettings which are more conducive to copying in a given environment,will tend to be copied more often and will therefore tend be more widelyrepresented in the field. Thus, simply by encoding some functionalparameters of the product in the product's Variable Portion, a processvery much like natural selection will tend to occur wherever multipleinstances of a program tend to proliferate. The adaptive process will beefficient only if the mutation rate is not so high as to degrade theinfluence of selective factors, and a variety of other possibleadjustments and embellishments can readily be gleaned from the extensiveliterature on genetic algorithms and evolutionary programming. But theforegoing presentation should be sufficient to demonstrate that thatliterature has been made relevant and applicable by the invention heredisclosed.

This invention is scientifically valuable because it extends the theoryand technology of selection theory to the field of softwaredistribution, and it is commercially valuable because it provides ameans by which products which thrive on copying can automatically adjustthemselves so as to promote their own reproduction. It should also benoted that the applicability of the invention is not restricted toproducts which are meant to be purchased. It is applicable to softwarewhose purpose is the presentation of commercial messages, because themore widely distributed the software is, the more effective it will be.And for similar reasons it is applicable to non-commercial softwarewhich is simply more useful when it is ubiquitous, e.g., a “positivecomputer virus” released by network administrators whose function was tosomehow facilitate network traffic. Many other domains of applicabilityexist as well, and are intended to fall within the scope of the presentinvention.

However, from the point of view of a Vendor of a product intended forpurchase, the invention just disclosed will be most useful insofar asthe parameter values which promote copying also promote purchasing. Thismay not be the case. For example, in the case of the program which waitsN minutes before requiring that the user purchase or restart, a highvalue of N might maximize copying but minimize purchasing. In that case,the natural selection process (which promotes copying, not “goodness”)would actually work against the Vendor's true interest. The followingparagraph shows how many of the inventions disclosed so far can be usedin concert.

If the sampling process is yoked to purchasing events (as has often beenposited above for expositional reasons only) than the Central Databasewill be able to directly monitor purchasing events rather than copyingevents per se. However we will now disclose (1) a way in which copyingevents can be monitored directly and (2) a way in which copying eventscan be monitored indirectly.

Copying events can be monitored directly as follows, and as illustratedin FIG. 1. Let the product store a trace of its footprint, physicallocation, or context in an Auxiliary Region of the Variable Portion, andlet its footprint be empirically checked dynamically each time theprogram runs. If the footprint determined empirically differs from thefootprint stored in the Auxiliary Region and if no purchasing event hasalso occurred, then the program has been copied (or moved) from a formerlocation. Record that event in a Central Database, in an auxiliaryregion, etc. and update the stored footprint value. Such techniquescould be elaborated and implemented in a variety of ways all of whichfall within the scope of the present invention.

Copying events can be monitored indirectly as follows. Suppose thatpurchasing events produce mutations, but copying events do not. Lineageswhose members tend to promote purchasing rather than copying will tendto be deep rather than wide—fewer copies of an individual will be made,but those which are made will tend to generate descendant variantsthrough purchases. Lineages whose members tend to promote copying morethan purchasing will therefore tend to be wide rather than deep—that is,individuals well tend to have more siblings than grandchildren. Thus byidentifying lineages which are wide vs deep, and then examining theparameter values associated with these lineages, it would be possible toidentify parameter values which promote purchasing as well as copying.

Once those parameters were identified, the vendor who wished to maximizesales could release a new version of the program with fixed rather thanRandomizable settings on those parameters which maximize promotepurchases. Alternatively, an ancillary invention disclosed in thefollowing paragraph could be employed.

During the purchasing process, a channel of communication is establishedbetween the user's program and the vending system. As exploitedelsewhere in this invention, the channel is bidirectional. Someinformation flows from customer to vending system: customer information,context information, and Variable Portion information. Information alsoflows from vending system to customer: the password and potentially, asdisclosed now, other information which could be used to reset orreprogram the software-instance being purchased. Specifically if theCentral System identified a software-instance with evolvedcharacteristics known to be at variance with the desires of the vendor,it could be used to transmit Vendor-selected values to thesoftware-instance, and also transmit a code which would protect valuesfrom mutation in the future. These settings would then be stablypropagated when copies of the program were redistributed. Theinformation transmitted from the vending system to the software-instancecould be embedded in the password, or it could be transmitted as aseparate piece of information. It could be transmitted with or withoutthe active participation of the customer. Thus the invention disclosedis quite general, and the embodiments described merely illustrate a fewof the ways in which the present disclosures might be used in practice.As an example, and as previously noted, it should not be supposed thatthe purchase-based sampling process is the only one which could be usedto allow vendors to set parameters on their products after thoseproducts have been released. Network-aware applications of the sortwhich are now common on the global internet can, in seconds, exchangeinformation with servers located anywhere in the world, and it wouldtherefore be possible for software-instances to get or give informationto the Vendor whenever they are executed and not just when they arepurchased. The present disclosures thus apply to any method by whichinformation gathered from populations of variant software-instances isused to set parameters in already-released copies of that software.

SUMMARY: RAMIFICATIONS AND SCOPE

The present invention increases the convergence, relevance and mutualbenefit of computer science, evolutionary biology, economics, andsoftware marketing, and software engineering to each other. Manyvariations on, and permutations of the disclosures herein can beenvisioned, and so the examples, embodiments, and specificities aboveshould not be constued as limiting the scope of the invention, butmerely providing illustration of the presently preferred embodiments ofthis invention. For example, the methods disclosed could be applied tocopy-instances not usually thought of as software such as music CDs orphotocopied materials; mutations might be desirable under occasions ofinterest such as software execution as well as the occasions of copyingand purchasing discussed above; and so on.

Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appendedclaims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.

1. A method of selectively enabling access based on lineage analysis ofdigital information, the method comprising: receiving a request toaccess at least a part of the digital information; receiving a lineageof the digital information, the lineage including at least one of a copyhistory of the digital information, a purchase history of the digitalinformation, or a usage history of the digital information; analyzingthe lineage; and determining whether to allow or deny access to the atleast a part of the digital information based on the analyzing.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving therequest from a software program distinct from the digital information.3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprisesreceiving the request through a networked system.
 4. The method of claim1, comprising: receiving a second request to access the digitalinformation, wherein the request and the second request are requests topurchase the digital information; and offering a discount to the digitalinformation.
 5. The method of claim 1, comprising sending license datain response to the request.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein receivingthe request comprises receiving a request to access at least one oftext, audio, video, or graphical images.
 7. The method of claim 3,wherein receiving the request comprises receiving the request over theInternet.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the requestcomprises receiving a request to purchase the digital information. 9.The method of claim 8, comprising offering a purchaser of the digitalinformation a commission on one or more sales derived from the digitalinformation purchased by the purchaser.
 10. The method of claim 8,comprising offering a purchaser of the digital information a commissionon one or more sales derived from the digital information accessed bythe purchaser.
 11. The method of claim 8, comprising offering acommission on one or more sales derived from the digital information toone or more individuals identified from analyzing the lineage.
 12. Themethod of claim 8, comprising offering a purchaser of the digitalinformation a discount on a purchase of another copy of the digitalinformation.
 13. The method of claim 8, comprising offering a purchaserof the digital information a reward based on distributions of thedigital information to additional users.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein receiving the request comprises receiving a request to access afeature of the digital information.
 15. The method of claim 1, whereinanalyzing the lineage comprises identifying a user of the digitalinformation.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the lineagecomprises analyzing an operating context of the digital information. 17.The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the lineage comprises detectinga location of a last operation of the digital information.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein analyzing the lineage comprises identifyingat least one of a filename or a directory to thereby detect thelocation.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the lineagecomprises detecting digital rights authorized for the digitalinformation.
 20. The method of claim 1, comprising analyzing the lineageto evaluate an attractiveness of one or more features of the digitalinformation.
 21. The method of claim 2, wherein the software program isan audio player, and wherein the digital information is audioinformation.
 22. The method of claim 2, wherein the software program isa video player, and wherein the digital information is videoinformation.
 23. The method of claim 2, wherein the digital informationis a text reader, and wherein the digital information is text.
 24. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the request and the second request arereceived from a single computer.
 25. The method of claim 4, wherein therequest is received from a first computer, wherein the second request isreceived from a second computer, wherein the first computer is distinctfrom the second computer.
 26. The method of claim 5, wherein the licensedata includes a password.
 27. A device for selectively enabling accessbased on lineage analysis of digital information, the device comprising:a first receiver that receives a request to access at least a part ofthe digital information; a second receiver that receives a lineage ofthe digital information, wherein the lineage includes at least one of acopy history of the digital information, a purchase history of thedigital information, or a usage history of the digital information; ananalyzer that analyzes the lineage; and a processor that determineswhether to allow or deny access to the at least a part of the digitalinformation based on the analyzing.
 28. The device of claim 27,comprising a transmitter that sends license data to a client in responseto the request.